August Willich

August Willich (19 November 1810-22 January 1878) was a Major-General of the US Army during the American Civil War. Born in East Prussia, Willich was one of the leaders of the 1848 Rhenish Revolution before moving to the United States and becoming a Union general.

Biography
August Willich was born in Braunsberg, East Prussia, Prussia (now Braniewo, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland) on 19 November 1810, the son of a hussar captain of the Prussian Army. Willich joined the Communist League and became a Freikorps leader during the Spring of Nations, befriending Franz Sigel, Friedrich Hecker, Louis Blenker, and Carl Schurz. Willich was enemies with the conservative socialist Karl Marx, whom he challenged to a duel, but Marx refused to duel with him. In 1853, after the failure of the Rhenish Revolution, Willich moved to the United States with several other German exiles, and he was brevetted a Major-General due to his prior military experience. He led the all-German 32nd Indiana (1st German) Regiment, and he saw action in the West at Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. In 1864, he was given command of the Cincinnati garrison after he was wounded at Resaca in the state of Georgia, and he served as auditor of Hamilton County after the war. In 1870, he decided to return to Germany due to anti-German sentiment, and he offered his services to the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War; however, his age, health, and communist views led to the government refusing his offer. He graduated from the University of Berlin at the age of sixty, gaining a philosophy degree, and he returned to Ohio. He died in St. Marys, Ohio in 1878 at the age of 67.